Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Staff writer
Open the gates. It’s rodeo time.
Eastern New Mexico University kicks off its season with the “College Daze” rodeo tonight through Saturday at Lewis Cooper Arena.
Performances begin at 7 p.m. each day.
About 450 participants are expected from 15 schools, including Texas Tech, Tarleton State and South Plains College.
Events include bareback bronco riding, bull riding, barrel racing, breakaway roping, goat tying, saddle bronco riding, steer wrestling, team roping and tie-down roping.
“It’s going to be pretty tough for us to be where we need to be, because the kids are working at putting on the rodeo as well as competing,” ENMU rodeo coach Albert Flinn said.
“But they’ve all been practicing and I expect all of them to do well this weekend,” he said as he sorted out final details in his office on Wednesday.
Both the Greyhounds and the Zias are loaded with local athletes.
For the men, sophomores River Fine and Koby Lovett and senior Clay Bonner are all graduates of Portales High School.
“I expect big things out of Bonner this year,” Flinn said. “Fine is another guy we’re looking to contribute this year. River ropes calves fairly well. He has a chance this weekend if he can draw good.”
Flinn said he’s expecting 119 calf ropers this weekend, “so the competition is going to be pretty tough.”
On the women’s side:
“Haley Hunter is a girl from Elida who ropes really well, ties ropes good too, so we’re expecting (the Zias) to have a good weekend along with the rest of our team,” Flinn said.
The opening weekend will provide a good measuring stick for the season, Flinn said.
“After this event we’ll look back and see where they need to improve, and we’ll look for them to be real competitive the rest of the season,” he said. “I have no reason to believe the girls can’t win a team trophy this season and the boys can’t be a top five team this year.
“We have a lot of talent on this team and we have high expectations,” he said. “We have a few new freshman girls and three of the four girls returning from last year’s regional championship team, so we think we’re in the hunt to win the region again.”
